'Religions don't deserve special treatment'

According to the author: "It is time to reverse the prevailing notion that religious commitment is intrinsically deserving of respect, and that it should be handled with kid gloves and protected by custom and in some cases law against criticism and ridicule." More…

Bush-Backed Commission Prepares To Slam His Admin's Iraq Strategy

A commission backed by President Bush that is exploring U.S. options in Iraq has agreed that 'stay the course' is not working. And intends to propose significant changes in the administration's strategy by early next year, members say."There'll probably be some things in our report that the administration might not like," said James A. Baker More…

Pricing For Dummies: How To Find What Your Item’s Worth

Setting prices on eBay can sometimes feel like shooting while blindfolded. As convenient as it would be, no one has put together a convenient little guide you can grab to find the average price for Item X. Trying to assemble the seemingly unlimited categories and products being sold on eBay, along with the prices they typically go for, into one handy compilation would be a task that could make anyone throw their hands up in despair. EBay Pricing Made Easy Well, almost anyone… but author Julia Wilkinson (http://www.YardsalersEBayers.com) thought she was up to the challenge. And she’s spent the last year compiling all that information into one useful, time-saving aid, The EBay Price Guide. This paperback volume can be a tremendous resource, especially if you’re just getting started on eBay and have no idea what to expect, in terms of pricing. It provides a terrific overview—just flip through the pages and see what’s selling and for how much. The Highlights While not entirely exhaustive (publishers actually insisted on cutting it down by two thirds), the book contains many pertinent facts and figures: •It covers eBay’s thirty-some top categories in the order they appear on the site and discusses standout auctions and relevant trending info. •It lists the most popular subcategories and the fifteen high and fifteen average prices within those subcategories. •It includes compilations of fun, interesting data, such as the top keywords from A-Z, twenty-five things you can’t sell on eBay, and the fifty top eBayers with the most feedback. •It compares eBay prices to retail, so you can see what kind of bargains people are really getting. Wilkinson discloses, “I found a rule of thumb that people often get a bargain of about a third to half off of what they would expect to pay retail.” Gauging Your Choices The price guide is a great research supplement. The data was gleaned primarily from http://Hammertap.com’s DeepAnalysis research tool, using the data in the auction title and the final prices. You don’t get the product specifics, such as year and condition, so once you find your specific niche, you’ll want to do more extensive fact-finding with a tool like http://Terapeak.com or http://mpire.com. But the book can quickly put your product ideas into perspective and shave a lot of time off the top of the research process. Whether you’re looking to buy or sell, The EBay Price Guide is a great starting point. You can keep it on your desk as a quick reference, rather than having to go sort through a lot of data online, which can be very time-consuming. Wilkinson explains, “When you’re trying to decide what you’re going to sell on eBay, you’re looking for initial numbers… so you can go into this guide and come up with a really quick idea of whether or not it’s worth doing.” Not only can you check out the products you’re considering, but you might also get ideas for products you hadn’t even thought about.About The Author:Chris Malta and Robin Cowie of WorldwideBrands.com are the Writers and Hosts of The Entrepreneur Magazine EBiz and Product Sourcing Radio Shows. http://www.worldwidebrands.com/EMRinfo for more FREE eBiz info from Entrepreneur Magazine Radio!

Giving Your Customers What They Want: Increase Revenues Through Product Recommendations

Right This Way, Please… When you’re sandal shopping at your favorite Shoe Emporium, you may be drawn to the boot display across the aisle. Although you didn’t come in looking for boots, you find yourself checking out with both beach sandals and ankle boots. This is the concept behind using product recommendations on your website: you’re leading visitors step by step through your store. Your goal is to sell them the product they initially came to you for, but also to strategically direct their shopping session to sell them additional items. What’s the Advantage? Why should you, as a retailer, be making product recommendations? Several reasons: •You increase online sales. You gain cross-selling and up-selling opportunities. •Understanding what your customers want and predicting their behavior allows you to tailor your suggestions, and match them with products that they’re likely to buy. •Bring traffic to under populated areas of your website. •Gain exposure for your overall product catalog, and move products that were previously low in sales. How Do Conversion Services Work? Conversion solution http://CleverSet.com studies click streams, or the patterns by which shoppers explore websites. They track the order in which customers look at pages and how much time they spend on each page, and offer product recommendations based on individual customer behavior. Says CleverSet CEO, Todd Humphrey, “We not only [look at] what happened in the past, but we actually anticipate where a shopper is going and make targeted recommendations by understanding what a visitor is doing now and what they’re going to do next.” Do I Need Outside Help? That depends on the size of your product catalog. If you sell twenty or thirty different products, you can probably put together your own recommendation solution. With a smaller selection, your visitors have a better chance of being exposed to all of your various products. However, if you sell over a hundred different products, you could really benefit from the available technology, to understand your customers and offer them customized recommendations. Enthuses Humphrey, “What we’re seeing is an increase of between ten percent and thirty-five percent, in terms of conversion rates!”About The Author:Chris Malta and Robin Cowie of WorldwideBrands.com are the Writers and Hosts of The Entrepreneur Magazine EBiz and Product Sourcing Radio Shows. http://www.worldwidebrands.com/EMRinfo for more FREE eBiz info from Entrepreneur Magazine Radio!

Putting Your Business In The Limelight: How To Submit Press Releases That Get Published

Any business can benefit from regular promotion—the more exposure, the better. One of the best ways to get your name out there, and one that small business owners too often overlook, is writing press releases. Whether you’re selling an extremely rare item on eBay, or your website is offering a unique service, communicating that to the right audience is an excellent way to bring in new business. Writing Press Releases Right There are certain things you can do to increase your chances of getting published, according to Rieva Lesonsky, editorial director of Entrepreneur Magazine: •Familiarize yourself with a publication, whether it’s online or printed, BEFORE submitting anything to them. Know what they do, their format, and their target audience. Tailor your tone and writing style to match theirs’. •Be concise. Cautions Lesonsky, “No matter how much you love your product, no one wants to read three pages about it.” •Lead with what’s interesting. Tell them up front why they should care. Think about what would be appealing to readers, and use that to grab their attention. •Know their schedule. Some magazines are weekly, others bi-weekly or monthly. If you’re pushing a special eBay listing, you aren’t going to talk to a quarterly magazine—you can’t wait that long. You need to get your release to a newswire that will send it out overnight to radio stations, newspapers, and interested magazine editors. •Target your releases to specific market. In other words, send your releases to magazines directed at people who are end users of your products. If you sell unique Christmas items, find out the deadline for magazines like Women’s Day and Family Circle, and try to get into a holiday issue. Even if they don’t publish your release, they may contact you for a story that’s related to yours, so the word gets spread a different way. •“Don’t be discouraged if you don’t hear back immediately,” advises Lesonsky. Magazines have planning cycles that can go out five months or more. If you send in a piece today, they may decide it would be great for their May issue, which means they wouldn’t actually contact you until January, when they start planning for May. Having the Right Backing Besides free advertising aimed directly at your target market, press releases give you the added advantage of credibility by association. The magazine is essentially talking about you, so it’s an implied endorsement. Readers trust the publication, and because you’re connected to them, they’re more likely to have confidence in you as well. Take advantage of this opportunity to grow your business and reach potential customers.About The Author:Chris Malta and Robin Cowie of WorldwideBrands.com are the Writers and Hosts of The Entrepreneur Magazine EBiz and Product Sourcing Radio Shows. http://www.worldwidebrands.com/EMRinfo for more FREE eBiz info from Entrepreneur Magazine Radio!

Sensex ends 7 points down in choppy trade

In choppy trade, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share index Sensex has ended seven points down tracking weakness in Asian markets on reports of North Korea conducting a nuclear test. The BSE 30-share index lost 6.98 points at 12,365.83 after moving between 12,261.49 and 12,429.74 on alternate bouts of selling and buying by major players.

The National Stock Exchange index Nifty too finished 2.55 points down at 3567.15, after touching the day’s low of 3540.45.
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Hero Honda launches all-new CBZ

Looking to challenge Bajaj Auto and TVS Motors in the premium bikes market, Hero Honda has launched an all-new model of its 150-cc motorcycle CBZ, pricing the base variant at Rs 54,500 (ex-showroom Delhi). The bike market leader, which has of late been facing tremendous pressure from Pune-headquartered Bajaj Auto, said it would follow the new ‘CBZ X-treme’ with another offering in the premium segment that could be out somewhere next fiscal.

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E-mails Show Foley Sought to Rendezvous with Page

In addition to explicit sexual language, former Congressman Mark Foley’s Internet messages also include repeated efforts to get the underage recipient to rendezvous with him at night. In another message, Foley, using the screen name Maf54, appears to describe having been together with the teen in San Diego. More…

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Bay Buchanan: Foley Email Had ‘Predator Stamped All Over It’

Prominent conservative pundit Bay Buchanan appeared on CNN this afternoon and lit into Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and the rest of the House leadership. Buchanan said that the email that Hastert was informed about — and described as “overly friendly” — “had predator stamped all over it. No one in the country can suggest otherwise.” More…

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House Republicans protected pedophile Mark Foley (R-FL) for five years

Oct. 1, 2006. A Republican staff member warned Congressional pages five years ago to watch out for Congressman Mark Foley, according to a former page. Matthew Loraditch, a page in the 2001-2002 class, told ABC News he and other pages were warned about Foley by a supervisor. Loraditch, the president of the Page Alumni Association, said the pages More…

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Charges and Evidence: Impeachment of George W. Bush

This site summarised all the illegal activity performed by Bush demonstration. It is up todate and provide all the evidence. More…

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Supreme Court rejects Texas sex-toy case

The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider whether a Texas law making it a crime to promote sex toys shaped like sexual organs is unconstitutional. An adult bookstore employee sued the state after his arrest for showing two undercover officers a device shaped like a penis and telling the female officer the device would arouse and gratify her. More…

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E-mails Show Foley Sought to Rendezvous with Page

In addition to explicit sexual language, former Congressman Mark Foley’s Internet messages also include repeated efforts to get the underage recipient to rendezvous with him at night. In another message, Foley, using the screen name Maf54, appears to describe having been together with the teen in San Diego. More…

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Bay Buchanan: Foley Email Had ‘Predator Stamped All Over It’

Prominent conservative pundit Bay Buchanan appeared on CNN this afternoon and lit into Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and the rest of the House leadership. Buchanan said that the email that Hastert was informed about — and described as “overly friendly” — “had predator stamped all over it. No one in the country can suggest otherwise.” More…

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32 Weirdly Specific Museums

Here’s a sampling: the Hat Museum, the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, and the British Lawnmower Museum… these are all brick-and-mortar museums; there are many more that exist only on the Web. More…

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Northern Coalfiedls in talks with UPRVUNL, NLC for power

Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL), a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd, has initiated talks with Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd (UPRVUNL) and Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) for setting up two power plants of 1,000 MW each in joint venture at an investment of Rs 9,000 crore.
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Oil prices fall below 60 dollars in Asian trade

Oil prices fell back below USD 60 in Asian trade, their lowest level in six months, before regaining some ground as concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme continued to ease, the contract hit USD 59.95 dollars.At 10:57 am (0827 IST) New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for November delivery, was down 49 cents to 60.06 dollars a barrel from 60.55 dollars in late US trades Friday.
Brent North Sea crude for November was down 42 cents at USD 59.99.
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Audit: Bush reading program beset by favoritism, mismanagement

A scorching internal review of the Bush administration's reading program says the Education Department ignored the law and ethical standards to steer money how it wanted. More…

White House: Not U.S. policy to threaten Pakistan

The White House said on Friday it was not U.S. policy to threaten Pakistan and former U.S. diplomat Richard Armitage denied warning Pakistan's president the United States would bomb his country after September 11. More

NASDAQ Sends Dell Delisting Notice

NASDAQ has alerted Dell and Novell, two tech stalwarts, that it is starting delisting procedures. NASDAQ told Dell it has failed to meet requirements for continuing to be listed on its exchange. Dell faces a number of investigations into its financial reporting and accounting methods. More…